Microsoft is shutting down its internal innovation platform, The Garage, which has operated for 17 years. The company is closing or restructuring its global maker spaces, with some locations ceasing operations as early as October 23. The official public website for the project has been taken down and now redirects to the main Microsoft homepage.
Founded in 2009 at the Redmond campus, The Garage grew into a global network spanning approximately 15 locations across the US, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. It provided employees with resources for prototyping, hardware development, and cross-departmental collaboration, including the organization of annual global hackathons.
The company will no longer manage innovation through a centralized function. Instead, Microsoft plans to integrate experimental learning and collaboration directly into the daily workflows of individual business teams. The future of the global hackathon remains uncertain as the responsible team is currently redesigning the event format.
Over its 17-year history, the platform incubated several notable products, such as the Seeing AI application for visually impaired users, which originated from a 2015 hackathon. While the platform and its website have been closed, Microsoft has not provided details regarding the immediate status or future updates for existing applications developed through the program.
